The Grand Alliance, founded in 1998, is the leading integrated consortium in container liner shipping. Its members are Hapag-Lloyd, MISC Berhad, Malaysia, Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), Japan, and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), Hong Kong. The four member lines have today extended their cooperation for a further term of ten years.

Global container transport volume should surge to 138m standard containers by 2011, according to Global Insight, one of the leading economic research institutes. This would mean an increase of 40m containers or over 40% compared with 2006.

North German Lloyd (Norddeutscher Lloyd - NDL) was founded by the legendary H.H. Meier on February 20th 1857. Since its merger with Hapag in 1970, it has been part of Hapag-Lloyd, which is today among the top 5 in global container shipping.